umber. The news was received in characteristic fashion. Hilary stood
in silence, thinking deeply; Lettice promptly burst into tears, and
clung round her father's arm; and Norah blurted out a dozen
contradictory speeches.

"How horrid of her! I won't go! I should hate to leave you all. It's
very kind. ... The best masters! It would be lovely, of course, but--
Oh, dear! whom will she choose?"

"I couldn't leave home, father. Who would look after the house? It
would be impossible for Lettice to do the housekeeping. Miss Carr knows
me best. I should love it if it were not for leaving home."

"I don't want to go! I don't want to leave you. Oh, father, father!
I'd be so homesick! Don't let me go!"

Mr Bertrand stroked Lettice's golden locks, and looked on the point of
breaking down himself.

"Whichever Miss Carr chooses will have to go," he said slowly. "I have
promised as much, and I think it will be for the best. I shall be in
town every two or three months, and she will come home for the Christmas
and the summer holidays, so that it will not be a desperate matter.
Don't cry, my pet; you are only one of three, remember; it is by no
means certain that Miss Carr would have you, even if you begged to go.
Perhaps I should not have said anything about it; but it was on my mind,
and I was bound to speak. London is a fascinating place. It is the
centre of the world--it _is_ the world; you will find many
compensations."

"I shall see a great deal of Mr Rayner. I'm sure she will choose me.
It's only fair. I'm the eldest, and she knows me best," thought Hilary
to herself.

"I should go to the Royal College of Music, learn from the best masters,
and play at the concerts," thought Norah. "I wonder if it would stop
Edna's lessons! I should feel mean if it did that, and I _do_ enjoy
going over every fortnight and having fun at the Manor!"

Lettice sobbed on her father's shoulder, and tried to smother the
thought that it would be "nice" to know grand people, and drive in the
park dressed in pretty, fashionable clothes.

Very little more was said on the subject. The girls were shy of
revealing their secret thoughts, and Mr Bertrand was already beginning
to repent the confidence which had had the effect of damping their high
spirits.

"We must get up an excursion of some kind to-morrow, or we shall all be
in the blues," he said to himself, and when tea-time arrived he had all
the plans cut and dried.

"